By Jayant Singh
What was once a robust defense trade has fallen away in recent years. Can it rebound?
As strategic relations go, few countries can match the enduring partnership that India and Russia have shared since the 1960s. For close to half a century Russia has been New Delhi’s foremost military supplier. In fact, defense trade became the raison d’être for strategic relations between the two nations – particularly in the post-Cold War era. Yet Russia’s share of military sales to India is now in steady decline. In consonance with India’s enhanced geopolitical status and strategic rapprochement with the U.S., New Delhi has found new partners in the West. And what was once the defining aspect of the bilateral relationship with Russia is threatening to become a heavy burden for both partners.
This shift has been a decade in the making and can be traced back to the 123 Agreement that India signed with the U.S. The pursuit of a “strategic partnership” with India is perhaps the most enduring foreign policy legacy of President George W. Bush. On the back of rising religious extremism in South Asia, the Bush administration was convinced that India could be a driving force for political stability in the region. Taking confidence from what Washington perceived as convergent geo-political interests, the U.S. initiated proceedings to elevate India to the status of a strategic ally. What followed was a reversal of a decades old non-proliferation policy that culminated in the signing of the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear agreement in 2005. America’s strategic rapprochement with New Delhi marked a watershed moment in India’s defense engagement with the world. Sanctions against many Indian defense entities were lifted and high technology export controls were slowly eased.
Read the full story at The Diplomat